Closer Look at 19" Monitor Features. Part IV.. Page 21

We continue the good tradition of testing 19-inch LCD monitors. Today we are going to introduce to you 15 models from Acer, ASUS, BenQ, EIZO, NEC, Philips, Samsung and Viewsonic. We will look at a few widescreen models and discuss the monitors’ response time and RTC errors for all RTC-enabled monitors. Read more in our detailed roundup now!

To achieve 100-nit brightness of white I selected 25% brightness and 30% contrast. By default, the brightness and contrast settings are set at 100% and 75%, respectively. Color gradients are reproduced by this monitor without problems at any settings. The backlighting is uniform, and the viewing angles are typical of a PVA matrix, i.e. they are wide enough for a majority of users, even though with minor artifacts (dark tones are lost when your line of sight is exactly perpendicular to the screen, and the image becomes pale sooner than with S-IPS matrixes when you are deflecting your line of sight sideways).

The gamma value is too low at the default settings. This is no news for Samsung’s monitors – most of them come out set up this way and I don’t know the reason for that. The image looks faded, lacking contrast, as a result, but don’t forget you can improve this by simply changing the gamma setting.

The gamma curves do not change at the lowered brightness and contrast whereas MagicColor leads to significant problems.

As you see, the monitor just stops to distinguish between all the light tones. I am rather suspicious about such color reproduction enhancement modes as I have seen similar effects when using LG’s f-Engine and NEC’s DV Mode…

The quality of this color temperature setup is average. The difference between the temperatures of white and levels of gray isn’t that big as with some other monitors, yet is considerable. Moreover, the SyncMaster 940T just doesn’t offer warm temperatures: the Warm mode gives you about 6500K on average but warm colors are actually those with a temperature of below 6000K. This is not going to be a problem for a majority of users, though. Color temperatures between 6500K and 7500K are usually used in practice.

The monitor employs a PVA matrix without response time compensation, so you can’t expect a high speed from it. The response time is over 100 milliseconds at the maximum (on dark tones) and lowers towards light tones to 26 milliseconds, the specified response time being 25 milliseconds. So, I can’t recommend this model to gamers.

The contrast ratio is good, just as it should be in a regular PVA matrix. Running a little ahead, I want to say that no other matrix in this review produced a better contrast ratio.

Describing the SyncMaster 940T in a single sentence, I’d say it is a “nice monitor for everyday work”. It is well made, has all the necessary functionality, is rather well set up, and employs a PVA matrix instead of the popular TN+Film. You cannot expect marvels from it (like an extremely good reproduction of colors, for example), but it will suit nicely for work with drawings, text, the Internet, etc. You may consider buying a 940T for your home only if you are not into dynamic games. A PVA matrix without “overdrive” can do for movies, but will most likely prove to be a disappointment in games.